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Reverse-Gentrification of the Literary World

Akashic Books

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News & Features

“The Guns of Brixham” by Tom Leins

The skinhead wipes the rain out of his eyes and cackles. “I’m glad I’m not the poor bastard that has to try and identify your body.” His pump-action shotgun is wedged against my throat. He is going to make one hell of a mess . . .

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Get 50% off all our books—including Depeche Mode: Monument and An Unkindness of Ghosts— through 11:59pm Monday, 12/31/2018, using code BF2018 at checkout!

“The Long Shadow of Sing Sing” by Michael Boatman

Once, I lived in Tarrytown, in a six bedroom Tudor set high in the hills. My living room windows looked out across the Hudson to the green expanse of Rockland County on its far side. This was back when I was married; before Floyd Flake bit off my left ear and won the World Heavyweight title by a “knockout.” . . .

“In the Furnace” by Joe Kraus

You have to go down a lot of steps to get to what’s left of the furnaces, so not many people come here. That’s why I use this place, but it got me thinking all the same. This was where it started, where – like the historical marker says – we made the steel that won the Civil War. Now it’s four ruined rock walls. This used to be the heart of the city, or maybe the lungs for the great bellows it had. Now it’s broken and useless. The city’s own black lung . . .